Keyboard sizes
Full size
A full-sized ANSI (American Standard) keyboard has 104/105 switches, usually. The numpad on the right-hand side enables you to input numerical data easily, and companies can often further increase this size by adding macro keys or media keys to the board too. This means that the keyboard has a large footprint on your desk, often dominates your workspace, and can quite easily create an uncomfortable ergonomic working position.
If you use these boards, you will likely sit with your shoulders in a slightly wider position than with a better ergonomically designed board. This is a natural process, and one you do to ensure you don’t hit the keyboard with the mouse. It’s actually almost unnoticeable, as these are typically the boards many people grew up with, and it became second nature to use. These ergonomic problems only became apparent, as a curious discovery, once people started to use smaller keyboards.
TKL (Tenkeyless)
As the name suggests, this is essentially a full-sized keyboard but without the tenkey or numpad. This reduces the size a great deal and also puts you into a better typing position, as now you can move the keyboard slightly towards the mouse, and your arms can be in line with your shoulders, with just a slight bend at the elbow creating the optimal sitting position. The difference isn’t worth changing keyboards for though, and for many users the numpad is far more useful than having a slightly smaller board.
65% keyboard
A 65 percent keyboard gets even smaller. This compresses everything down more, and you lose the physical F-key row as well. That said, you can still access them by using the FN key + the number keys, and the arrow keys are still physically there but are far closer to the right Shift/Control buttons. This is a good sweet spot for those who want a compact board but still want to use it without too many compromises.
60 percent keyboard
60 percent boards go one step further over the 65 percent ones, removing physical arrow keys too. Instead, the arrow keys are usually used with FN + IJKL or PL;’. You can also usually rebind these to other letter combinations, if you so desire. When it comes to our own custom keyboards, we have more 60 percent boards than anything else. It takes some getting used to, but once you do, workflow is just as fast, and you have a far smaller footprint on the desk. You can also shove a 60 percent keyboard into a laptop bag easily and carry it to events with you, meaning that typing away from the office or home has exactly the same feeling.
40 percent keyboard
40 percent is where it gets a little bit strange. These 44-48 key beauties are tiny. Boards like the Vortexgear Core 40 and the Planck have made these more popular, but they are still very much a niche, enthusiast product. They can still function as a full-sized board: Nothing is missing from it, you just have to remember the layers and the different functions. These are more of a hobby board, certainly until you get used to them, and even when you do, they’re not easy to use in terms of functionality for anyone who does office tasks, or similar jobs that may require different punctuation on occasion. You’ll spend more time looking for the right key than actually typing. We know from experience.
Split keyboard
As well as all the standard sizes we listed above, there are also split keyboards. These usually follow a TKL or 60 percent layout, but there are also full-sized split boards available too. Split keyboards link back to the ergonomics of peripherals, and instead of forcing your arms into a triangle like a standard keyboard would, these enable you to split the left and right sides apart so that you can sit optimally. There’s a reason a car’s steering wheel is still quite large: Sure it helps you to make turns, but the position it forces you to sit in with your arms is better for you. Split boards are based on a similar theory.